Walking the Camino de Santiago
We sang vespers with the sisters last night in Gramat. I have prayed Vespers frequently in both English and Latin (and more usually, a combination of the two), but this is only the second time I’ve prayed them in French. This is the mother house of their order, and the sisters here were few in number and gray haired. This […]
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Morning brought adventures for these two tiny hospitaleras Date: 31 August 2023 Place: Madrid y Logroño The night proved a bit noisy and both Becky and I both had done sleep challenges. But we got up at 6:30am and packed up. We were out by 7:30 and to the bus station by 8:10 having our breakfast. The lovely inn keeper […]
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Today started off rough. I accidentally left my clothes on the line outside last night, and it rained. So that made packing my bag this morning a little awkward. Still, are you really a pilgrim if you haven’t walked with clothes clipped to the outside of your backpack as you walked? After breakfast with the other pilgrims, several of us […]
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Date: 30 August 2023 Place: Madrid Ever get woken up from a dead sleep to hear “…doctor, emt, on the plane please come to aisle…” and realize you need to get up out of your seat because the person next to you has also sprung to life and must answer the call? That was new. We got to Madrid! It […]
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Today began my diversion from the main route towards the great Marian shrine of Rocamadour, which I hope to reach on 01 September. Most of the day, I climbed up to the Causset de Gramat, a limestone plateau. Unless I indicate otherwise below, just assume that every step was part of a gentle, but inexorable, uphill walk. This morning was […]
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Today Becky and I headed to Spain! Date: 29 August 2023 Place: in transit And the “oh sh*t” moment today was realizing at 9:07 that my 9:05 pickup was for September 29. Not August. But Uber and God had me covered and I was in an Über in 5 minutes. While in the terminal I cancelled the outbound shuttle and […]
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We had a delightful breakfast in the gîte, complete with a bit of a piano performance by Andrea, our host. I ended up not leaving until about 8 o’clock in the morning. The weather was clear and cool. The path out of town was clearly marked, and soon it was back to roadwalking by open fields. After passing through a […]
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The cats have cottoned to the impending departure. Date: 27 August 2023 Place: Pistachio House They are not pleased. They go from super needy to clingy to aloof to emo. I am tackling the things that are on my to-do list that are just sort of… if you have the time: Roast coffee so i don’t have to when I […]
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Last night was the first time I sang “Ultreïa” on this Camino. It was in the darkened church after compline, and we processed around the interior of the church singing it before ending up before a carving of the blessed Virgin Mary. And then we sang the Salve Regina. This morning I stayed for breakfast in the refectory. I continue […]
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Today was a half day, and I got a late start, not leaving the grandma house gîte until a quarter after seven. It has been raining most of the night and into the morning. Although it wasn’t raining when I left, out of an abundance of caution I donned, for the first time on the Camino, my strawberry troll. On […]
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